Hands On: Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

Now here’s a flagship smartphone that won’t bust your pocket… or your wallet

You remember the scene from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me when Dr. Evil first saw his clone, who was identical in every way to himself but one-eighth his size, and declared "Breathtaking. I shall call him… Mini-Me". That’s pretty much how the Sony Xperia Z1 would have felt about the Z1 Compact. In a market only too eager to push out mini variants of flagship devices that not only take a cut in size but also in specs and capabilities – I’m looking at you, S4 Mini and HTC One mini – Sony has dared go against the grain and create a compact…not a mini, mind you… that's actually worthy of its big brother's moniker, one that has the makings of a winner at least on paper. So let’s see how the Z1 Compact fares in real life.

Build and Design This one’s a looker, but then you already knew that if you were familiar with the Z1 or the Z1 Ultra – it looks exactly like its bigger siblings, only miniaturized. The Z1 Compact features a glass-covered front and glass-like plastic on the rear panel, and the single-piece aluminum frame that runs all along the sides of the device gives it a nice premium feel. In its size category, the Z1 Compact is right up there with the iPhone 5s so far as looks go, more so if you prefer glass over metal. But bear in mind that it is a smudge-magnet. Looks aside, the Z1 Compact is solidly built, albeit a little dense, and there’s only the slightest bit of flex in the body when twisted. At 127 x 64.9 x 9.5mm and 137 grams, it’s a tad heavier than the average smartphone these days, even those with larger 5-inch screens, but isn’t heavy enough to be a bother in daily use. And that heft is certainly reassuring. Given the sore lack of premium no-compromises Android smartphones in this size class, the Z1 Compact is a dream in the hand – it fits well in the palm, has good button placement and the size means you don’t have to contort your fingers into guitar power chord formation to reach some of those buttons. Like the other models in Sony’s Xperia Z range, the Z1 Compact is waterproof and dust resistant, which means that the slots for the microUSB port, SIM and microSD slots are covered by little sealed doors. Sure, these flaps can get to be quite frustrating when you are fumbling in the dark to charge your phone but the sheer freedom of being able to pocket this device and not have to worry if you’re caught in a downpour… or being thrown into the pool by a bunch of boisterous friends… is liberating.

Display The Z1 Compact's display is a 4.3-incher packing a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 342 pixels per inch, which arguably is a step down from the Full HD models that have become the norm in the phablet space. That said, the screen on the Z1 Compact is tack-sharp and you hardly feel the need for a higher resolution display – 1080p would probably have been overkill at this screen size, not to mention a huge drain on the battery. It also offers excellent contrast, sunlight legibility, good color accuracy and much better viewing angles than the Z1, but still a notch behind the leading flagships. Oh, and if you find the colors a bit too warm for your liking (like we did), there's even a setting for manually tuning the white balance. Sony proves that the Triluminos and X-Reality branding isnt just marketing and the two combine to give a wide color palette along with sharper image processing on the Z1 Compact. Pity that Sony only offers these effects in the stock applications included with the smartphone.

Camera On paper, the Z1 Compact's camera sounds like the kind that would take the competition to the cleaners, what with the 20.7-megapixel 1/2.3-inch sensor. The reality is that photos at maximum resolution lack clarity, detail and definition, and you're often left to shoot at the lower, less murky 8-megapixel resolution that the intelligent auto function chooses. Of course, in good light, the camera can push out equally good pictures, but that’s practically the case with every flagship device – all these extra pixels on the Z1 Compact aren’t really doing anything spectacular for the device. For video, the Z1 Compact can take Full HD video, and while the front 2-megapixel camera is good enough for Skype, it's not exactly great for amazing selfies.

Performance Of course, the headline feature for the Z1 Compact is that unlike other mini devices, this isn’t mini by nature when it comes to performance. The phone is equipped with the same 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset as its bigger sibling and plenty of other top-shelf smartphones. Coupled with 2GB of RAM, the Z1 Compact is a compact handset that runs abreast with the best. One thing to note, it does get a little hot when the hardware is pushed, say when you're running a graphics-heavy game at high settings. The Xperia Z1 Compact has 16GB of internal storage of which about 12GB is available for the user, and there is a microSD card slot for expansion if you need it. And despite its diminutive size, connectivity options abound on the device, with MHL and DLNA support to name a few.

Verdict The Z1 Compact has rightfully been called the iPhone of Android devices: a compact smartphone that doesn’t make any major compromises, one that offers a great alternative to those who demand flagship-level features yet don’t want the 5-inch-plus-sized devices that every major company seems intent on cranking out. If you can live with the camera capabilities, this device comes strongly recommended.

What we liked: Great design, waterproof, top-notch hardware, good battery lifeWhat we didn’t: Average camera, large bezels mean wasted screen spaceKiller Feature: Great form factor with no-compromise performancePrice: Rs 34,990